62 Nutts Corner Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long, single-storey, 'thatch under tin' vernacular dwelling of pre-1832 construction, formerly a miller's house, with facade 'formalised' somewhat c.1920. The building lies on an overgrown site at the end of a long narrow lane to the north of Nutts Corner Road, roughly 3.5km east of Crumlin, with the associated former corn and flax mill buildings close by on slightly higher ground to the immediate east and south-east. A concrete stair connects the differing ground levels.

To the right of centre of the front, east, facade is a projecting flat-roofed porch; the door opening is flat-headed and the door is panelled and part glazed. Either side there is a flat-headed window openings with narrow render surrounds. Frames are a 2/2 sash frame with horizontal astragals. Sills are cut stone.

The south gable is blank. The north façade is much overgrown; this is also blank.

The rear, west, façade has three flat-headed window openings with narrow rendered surrounds; frames are mixed and include 3/3 and 2/2 sash and one casement. All are timber. Sills are cut stone.

The roof is pitched and sheeted with corrugated iron; rainwater goods are galvanised metal. There are two rendered chimneystacks astride the ridge; each with a simple corbelled cap and clay pots. Front and rear walls are faced with roughcast render; gables are un-rendered revealing rubble field stone construction.

To the east side there is a stone lined well; this is covered with metal sheeting.

Mill
This is part two single and part two-storey. A projection to the south has been removed. There are two projections to the north rear face; both are part ruinous. The roof is pitched and slated; it has been crudely repaired in places with corrugated-iron. Walls are rubble field stone. Openings are mainly are segmental-headed; some have red clay brick dressings. To the west end are the, much overgrown, remains of a water wheel.

Historical information

A building matching the size and orientation of the present house is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832, part of a small group of structures marked 'Gredin Mill'. This particular building was the miller's house, with the mill / kiln itself larger building to the east. In the valuation of October 1835 the house is recorded as an old thatched dwelling in good condition measuring 45ft x 18 x 6, with the corn mill measuring 29 x 21½ x 13, the kilns 43 x 21 x 13 and 14 x 15 x 11, and a flax mill (which stood to the south-east) of 29 x 17 x 13. The whole concern was then in the hands of a George Cunningham, and the corn mill, which had '2 pairs of stones for shelling and grinding with one set of fans (and sifters)' was working '12 hours a day on an average for 6 months in the year. The flax mill, meanwhile, had '3 stocks and [a] breaking machine and worked '10½ hours a day on average for 4 months in the year'. The OS memoirs of 1838 tell us that the corn mill was 'propelled by a breast water wheel 14ft in diameter by 2 feet 3 inches in breadth' with a 'fall of 8 feet', but that the machinery of the mill was 'in very bad repair'. A subsequent entry in the memoirs states that the wheel was 18ft in diameter, as was that belonging to the flax mill.

By the time of the second valuation (c.1860) the property was in the possession of a James Fleming, who held it from the Pakenham (of Langford Lodge) estate on an '1834 lease'. The recorded dimensions are as those of 1835, except that the flax mill was not being worked as is simply classed as an 'office'. In 1868 the house and corn mill passed to John Fleming and by 1879 the mill itself had become 'vacant', the rateable value dropping from its c.1860 level of £25 to £10. Both corn and flax mill seem to have been brought back into use by John Fleming's successor, Samuel Williamson, who took over the lease in 1883, but their capacity appears to have been limited, for in 1901 only two of the flax mill's four stocks were worked ‘for four months in the year’, whilst the corn mill was only 'worked intermittently, say 1 month in the year'. In 1909 the flax mill was gutted by fire, and two years later the corn mill was recorded as 'disused as such [the] wheel in ruins [and the] machinery gone'; as a result the rateable value had fallen to a lowly £3-10-0.

The Williamson family continued to occupy the former miller's house, however, John Williamson succeeding Samuel in 1925, and remaining there until at least 1972. The building itself would appear to have been 'formalised' in the early 1900s with the window openings made 'regular', the porch added, and the thatched covered over with corrugated iron.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL1A/1/55 OS map, County Antrim sheet 55, with valuation
references, 1832(-c.1838)
2 PRONI VAL1B/164A-C First valuation, Killead parish, 1835
3 'OS Memoirs of Ireland...vol.35', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, (QUB, 1992), pp.14, 42, 48 (1838)
4 'The Mills and Millers of Ireland of about 1850', compiled by William E. Hogg, (Dublin, 1998), p.148 [Contains details regarding Gredin Mill dating from c.1856.]
5 PRONI VAL2A/1/55B OS map, County Antrim sheet 55 with valuation references, 1857(-c.1860)
6 PRONI VAL2B/1/53C Second valuation, Killead parish, c.1860
7 PRONI VAL12B/1/19A Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1864-66
8 PRONI VAL12B/1/19B Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1867-81
9 PRONI VAL12B/1/19C Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1882-89
10 PRONI VAL12B/1/19D Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1890-12
11 PRONI VAL12A/1/10 Valuers' office notebook, Antrim Union, 1899-1901, p.24 [Contains a plan of the mill in 1901 as well as details of the machinery etc.]
12 PRONI OS6/1/55/3 OS map, County Antrim sheet 55, 1902
13 PRONI VAL12A/1/14 Valuers' office notebook, Antrim Union, 1907-11, p.100
14 PRONI VAL12B/1/19A Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1913-29
15 PRONI VAL12F/1/1/6 Annual valuation revision book, Dundesert ED, 1929-30
16 NIEA OS map, County Antrim sheet 55, 1933
17 PRONI VAL3B/1/2 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundesert ED etc., 1935
18 PRONI VAL3C/1/2 First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundesert ED etc., 1936-56
19 PRONI VAL4B/1/7 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Dundesert ED etc., 1956-72

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This former miller's house is a pre-1832 vernacular dwelling which has retained much of its original external appearance, its vernacular form and some its internal layout. Unfortunately its interior has been altered during the mid-twentieth century and it has lost its original roof construction. Nevertheless It forms an interesting group with the adjacent single and two storey mill which has also lost some of its original detailing and is in poor condition. Together, whilst of some historic interest they are not of sufficient architectural interest to merit listing.